A lot of people assume that Alice Springs nothing but a town in a desert but it is actually a thriving area with plenty growing, surrounded by ranges and hills complete with swimming holes and beautiful views. But it is hot! Getting off the bus in Alice Springs we quickly sought some shade before calling Rodney. He had offered us a place to stay at his and Annas house and was expecting our call to come pick us up. It was great to be welcomed to the town by a local and he drove us to their house just 10 minutes out of the small town centre. Rodney and Anna (currently in Melbourne) share their house with several tennants all of whom spend very little time actually at the house. Rodney himself works out at Aboriginal communities for weeks at a time, employed as an Occupational Therapist, although his professional repotoir seems to be far from limited by this. It was only thanks to the easter weekend that he was in town at the same time as us. We spent the evening with Rodney, catching up and relaxing as the following morning we were off on tour for three days and two nights to see Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), and Watarrka (Kings Canyon).

Once we had tracked down and were on our tour bus for the trip we were quickly wondering if we had done the right thing by seeking out the cheapest available. Not that there was anything wrong with either the bus, the guide, the promised itinary or food, no that was all fine. We just found ourselves sitting surrounded by very young backpackers, full of themselves and mostly still drunk and rowdy from their night out! Paul and I exchanged a look and while I did my best at a positive "it'll be alright" smile, he put in his earphones and turned the music up. Luckily for us, as we got further into our four hour drive to the national park the alcohol wore off and they were all sleeping like babies for the majority. We stopped briefly at a roadside station and camel farm were a few in our group had a 5 minute ride. Paul didn't because he said they were like horses (minds of their own you know) but bigger and I had done it on a previous trip, but they were great to look at. We drove through hundreds of kilometres of soil and sand of various shades of red, scrub and native bush. The land isn't desert as they do get a fair share of rain, but its considered semi-arid. The plants that do grow are mostly drought proof and some in fact rely on occasional bush fires to germinate their seeds.

Our first glimpse of a big rock got most on the bus excited. Then Jenny, our guide told us it was Mount Connor, a look-a-like that fools a lot of tourists. The real Uluru came into view an hour or so later, but we cruised on past as our first stop for the afternoon was to Kata Tjuta. This huge sandstone feature was formed by several rocks similar to Uluru pushed up through tectonic activity when Australia had a huge inland ocean, then eroded by time. It is full of shapes and features and some areas are just as sacred to the Anangu (local Aboriginal nation) as Uluru. We walked for two hours on the paths across the rocks and valleys taking it all in. The sun was pretty intense and the heat stores well in the rocks so it was tiring going but we saw some fantastic features. Once we were all back on the bus we raced back to Uluru to set ourselves up at the sunset viewing area. Unfortunately for us some cloud had gathered over the course of the afternoon and was now sitting in the west ready to block out the last half hour of the setting sun. Not to be fazed we set our camera anyway and captures some beautiful changes on the rock as the clouds cast their shadows slowly over it. From there it was a 30 minute drive to the well established and busy campsite with all its emenities, including showers. Dinner was a pitch-in job and it wasn't long before our swags were set out on a patch of dirt and we were looking up at the stars. Our bus mates had calmed considerably by this time and already we were getting to know their seperate personalities and them ours.

The morning was an early start back to Uluru to catch the sunrise, and a fine one it was. From there were we droped off at various spots around the rock depending on whether you wanted to walk all the way around the base, half way, or climb it. Although our excelent guide Jenny stressed all the reasons not to climb the rock, ie. it's sacred to the Anangu and they'd rather you didn't, people have died doing it etc. Some in our group chose to do it anyway. Paul and I did the base walk which is 9.6km long and full of views. It's not until you get up close that you realise that although it is just one rock it is full of features and it was great to see these, as well as the informative plaques intermittently sharing a Anangu story about the rock. On completing our circuit we met back up with the rest of the group and Jenny who took us on a short walk to one particularly interesting section of the base where she told us a lot more about the Anangu and what they used to do there, various stories, and a bit about bush tucker. We got a good look at some cave paintings which were done not so much as art but for teaching and communication.

The afternoon was taken up with the five hour drive to Kings Canyon. Not so far as the crow flies, the drive takes a long way around due to massive and impassable salt lakes, remenants of the long gone inland sea. There being a thriving resort near Kings Canyon, we stopped of at one of the permenant campsites and had the luxury of using their swimming pool to stretch our cramped muscles.

The second night under the stars started the same as the first with some people mucking in preparing the meal, some people setting the table and some (well the two french guys) sitting about doing nothing as per usual. Once we had discovered that there was no power at our chosen site everyone moved to the next campsite with their food and after a quick clean up and a chat after dinner it was an early night so we could hit Kings Canyon early and avoid the heat of the day.

For what seemed like the 50th day in a row we were up well before the sun and arrived at Kings Canyon to see the sun rise. The walk that we were about to embark on was to take us from the bottom level of the canyon up to the rim viaa reasonable steep but stepped climb. It was then that we could pick out the smokers in the group as they weezed and spluttered thier way up the climb. The youngsters didnt stop complaining and whinging about having to exercise for once but they all shut up as we reached the top and saw the views.

Walking around the rim of the canyon, Jenny pointed out various plants and trees used by the indigenous peoples for centuarys for medicenes, painting, poisons and water. Each turn around a corner brought us different and eaqually outstanding views. We dropped into the canyon itself to visit the tropical pools of the Garden of Eden but the harsh and dry summer had dried these to a mosquito infested puddle. We climbed back out with the temprature soaring towards the mid thirties to the beehive rock formations called the Lost City. After photos and a couple of biscuits it was back down to the bus to start our long drive back to Alice.

We split the drive up on the way home by stopping at the Mt Ebaneza Impana community which is basically in the middle of nowhere. Here they have a gallery selling local indigenous art where the profitis of the sale goes straight back to the community rather than to the gallery owners as it does pretty much anywhere else in the country. We were determined to buy an original abororiginal dot painting whilst we were in Aus so thought that this would be the best place to do it. There were so many good ones it made the desicion quite a hard one. But after we had dismanteled half of the gallery to put all the pictures we liked next to each other we wittled it down to one by an artist called Polyanna Mumu. We were very happy with our purchase and can see it looking very good on our wall when we get home.

We arrived back in Alice to find Rodney had gone back to work but left the fridge stocked with beers and his lodger was back from "being out bush". Rooey who is thier lodger is a 19yr old guy who works out in the communities too but his role is slightly different. He is a circus performer who teaches the indigenous kids to juggle and ride unicycles etc... Once Paul had found this out he was getting one on one tuition on Rooeys offroad unicycle and determined to have it cracked by the time we left the next day. Sadly the blazing heat of Alice in the daytime meant that any excersion to master the unicycle left him exhausted but after some determined practice at least he could balance and propel himself forward a couple of pedal reveolutions but not exactly mastered!

Next stop... Cairns and the Barrier Reef.